


Be Nice to Everyone Day

by neko_fish



Series: Starfleet University [6]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Gen, Humor, M/M, Unfashion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-05
Updated: 2015-07-05
Packaged: 2018-04-07 17:21:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4271574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neko_fish/pseuds/neko_fish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which there's an exchange student and it's BNTE Day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Be Nice to Everyone Day

“Hello, Bones,” Jim says, with a water balloon in his hand and sounding far too childishly delighted for his age. “Would you mind if I did something terrible to you?”

“Hello, Jim,” he replies. “Would you mind if I strangled you with my bare hands?”

“So was that a yes or a no? I'm getting mixed vibes from you.”

“What kind of question was that even? Of course I’d mind! In what scenario would I ever be okay with something _terrible_ happening to me? Dammit, Jim, you better put that down. This won’t turn out well for any parties involved.” Leonard warns, eyes narrowed and sounding far too grouchy for his age. “If you do it, I’m going to have to chase you and yell threats at you. And the last time I chased you, I got turned into a meme.”

Jim just grins, making no move to put the water balloon away. “Would you prefer to skip down the hall after me?”

Leonard furrows his brow. “Why the hell would _anyone_ skip down the hall? What is this, a Disney movie? No. Why do you want me to chase you down the hall anyway?—wait, you know what? It doesn’t even matter because the answer’s no, don’t do it.”

“But you need the exercise, Bones! And I’m subtly doing you a favour, you know? Or, it was subtle until just now when I told you about it,” he tries.

“Oh? And how’s this a favour, pray tell?” Leonard crosses his arms, looking as unconvinced as a person could possibly look.

“Aside from the exercise? I figured it’d be a good idea for you to get out all your angry yelling and whatnot out of your system,” Jim explains. “Tomorrow’s _that day_. I feel like it would do us all some good if we get everything negative out of our system.”

He can see the exact moment the realization hits him because Leonard’s eyes widen and his hand immediately goes up to massage his temples in a way that makes him look like a man who’s seen too much. “Good god, man, why—”

Jim vaguely wonders if he should’ve let Leonard finish his complaint _before_ sending the water balloon flying. But it’s too late and he doesn’t have time to regret his choice because it takes Leonard all of two seconds to get over the shock and chase him through the engineering faculty screaming some of the most creative profanities Jim’s ever heard at him.

\--

Leonard hates their university sometimes. Only Starfleet could ever come up with something like a campus-wide ‘Be Nice to Everyone Day’ and have everyone to go along with it.

Apparently, it started because of some extremely terrible tragedy that happened a vague number of years ago in which unspecified but mean words led to a lot of terrible things. And apparently, the vague backstory was enough to guilt everyone into being nice for a day. It’s either that the fact that anything but nice or neutral statements results in punches.

Personally, Leonard thinks it’s just something the people in charge came up with to see how far they could take it before someone called bullshit. Only, they clearly didn’t think it through because no one could call bullshit on a day where everyone’s supposed to be nice without looking like an asshole.

And so, Be Nice to Everyone Day (BNTE Day) lives on.

To nobody’s surprise, Jim absolutely loves BNTE Day. Among his wide range of activities, his favourite thing to do on BNTE Day is pair enemies and frienemies and watch them verbally duke it out in a nice-off. Jim calls it ‘a second chance to bond’.

Leonard calls it bullshit—or, he calls it _not_ bullshit on the day of.

Everyone has a different way of dealing with BNTE Day. Some use vague terms, some give back handed compliments, some pretend it’s opposite date, and some are so nice that it just becomes creepy and uncomfortable for everyone. He personally likes adding negatives in front of his insults and negativities.

It’s not until later that evening, when his show’s on its commercial break that he remembers Jim’s words from earlier. “Wait. Earlier, what did you mean by ‘ _we’_ should purge ourselves of negativity?” he asks.

“Khan.”

“Oh.”

There’s an exchange student in the engineering faculty and Jim doesn’t like him— _at all_ , which is really saying something because generally, Jim likes to think of himself as a pretty open-minded and agreeable guy when it comes to people.

But not this guy.

Not _Khan_.

As he’s repeated a number of times before, Jim can’t wait for him to leave.

“I can’t wait for him to leave,” Jim says again.

The show returns from its commercial break.

“That’s _so_ not how amnesia works. C'mon, you could've Googled that,” Leonard mutters, brows furrowed in a way that begs the question ‘why do I sit here and watch this show every time it comes on?’

Sighing, Jim complains, “And Khan’s his middle name. More specifically, it’s _Khan Noonien Singh_. His actual name is John Harrison! Seriously, who names their kid John Khan Noonien Singh Harrison? That’s not even a name anymore, it’s like a top secret government project with a terrible acronym! JKNSH… _Je-Kinsh_?”

“And does he answer to Je-Kinsh?” he asks, only half paying attention.

“No. He likes to go by Khan. He doesn’t even look like a Khan.” Then Jim shrugs. “Whatever, that’s his choice and I can respect that, I guess. So can I tell you about why I hate him or should I wait for the next commercial break?”

“If it’s gonna take more than three minutes, wait till the show ends.”

Jim heaves another sigh. “I remember when you used to care, Bones.”

“By that, do you mean _before_ you threw a water balloon at me?”

“But—”

Leonard holds a finger up. “Shh. I’ll care again in like, 20 minutes.”

\--

When the show finally comes to an end. He finds Jim watching him expectantly and nods. “Go on. Get it all out of your system before tomorrow comes.”

Taking his cue, Jim starts, “Like, I don’t want to sound judgmental or like I’m jumping to conclusions or anything, but I’m pretty sure Khan is a sociopath—actually, I’m _positive_ Khan is a sociopath, which, yes, I realize sounds both judgey and a lot like conclusion jumping, but it's true!” After waiting for a response and not getting one, he says, “You don’t look impressed at all, and I can’t really tell if you’re unimpressed because you already knew that or because you’re not seeing it.”

“Guess,” Leonard says.

“I’d like to say it’s the first one because it’s _so_ obvious. But you’re shaking your head, so I assume it’s the second one? Fine, let me explain. Exhibit A—which is the only exhibit I’ll really need to prove my point: I got paired up with him for this project and got to have this actual conversation with him, right? And it went something like….”

_Reading over the project plan for their assignment with a raised brow, Jim frowns to himself. While the whole thing looks immaculate, he can’t help but ask, “You already have a plan laid out for the project? Seriously? I mean, this looks amazing and all, but I feel slightly bad for making you do all the work. Besides, shouldn’t I have some say in this?”_

_Khan looks unimpressed. “No.”_

_“Exact—” Surprised, Jim blinks. “What? No? Whoa, tone down the evil for a sec. What do you mean ‘no’?”_

_“No. Because I am better.”_

_He frowns. “At what?”_

_“ **Everything** ,” Khan replies._

_Jim slowly nods. “Yeah, That’s nice and all, buddy, but you **do** realize that we’re **partners,** don’t you? We need to work **together** on this project. And we’re going to end up getting the same grade on this so it’s hardly competitive.”_

_“But the individual assignments, the midterm and the final will be graded individually, will they not?”_

_“Yeah—wait, what are you trying to get at?” he asks._

_“The students here require good grades to maintain their academic standing, I do not. I will aim to skew the bell curve and raise the average. And after every single student in this class’ grade suffers, I will walk over your mangled GPAs and return home **triumphant**. Now,” Khan shoots him a cold, menacing smile, “shall we begin on this project?”_

_Definitely a threat if he’s ever heard one._

“It was seriously _bananas_!” Jim exclaims.

“Wow, this guy sounds even worse than Spock,” Leonard mutters.

Jim makes a face. “Of course! Our Spock’s way more loveable. Speaking of, so I told Spock this exact story earlier with the exact same wording, and you know what he said?”

“This outta be good. What’d our ever so ‘loveable’ Spock say?”

“‘I fail to see the relation between your conversation and a piece of fruit.’”

He lets out a snort. “Well, couldn’t get any more Spock-ish than that.”

“And you say he doesn’t have a sense of humour.”

“Right. How mistaken I was. The man was born to be a comedian.” Leonard rolls his eyes. “Well, this year’s Be Nice to Everyone Day’s definitely gonna be an interesting one what with this wrath of Khan and stuff.”

Jim tilts his head up and frowns at the ceiling. “Ugh, why are there so many assholes on this planet? There are days when I feel like I should rally together everyone and build a spaceship and go explore the final frontier instead. How about it, Bones? I’ll be the captain, Spock can be my first mate—”

“I’m pretty sure that’s for pirates.”

“—and you can be the ship’s doctor!”

“Sorry, Jim, you lost me at spaceship. There’s no way in hell I’d go flying around space in a tin can.” Just the thought of it is enough to raise the hairs on his arm. Seriously, who would ever want to go into space with its lack of _everything_?

Heaving a sigh, Jim shrugs. “Then I guess we’ll just have to make do here. Oh, just wait till you see what I’ve got in store for you tomorrow, Bonesy. Wait, let me take a moment to imagine your expression.”

“And let _me_ take a moment to gently remind you that I hate you and have every intention of murdering you the day after tomorrow.”

Jim grins and pokes him in the cheek. “Yep, that’s the exact one I was imagining.”

\--

_“Bones! Wake up! It’s time to wake up! You’re going to be late for class or something! Bones! Bones! Bones! Wake up! Wake—”_

Reaching out, he grabs his phone and turns off his alarm. He rolls out of bed and drags his feet to the bathroom to freshen up. And then when he goes to get change, he ends up bellowing, “Dammit, Jim! You—”

“BNTE Day, Bones,” Jim reminds him in a singsong way from the living room where he’s no doubt watching TV and eating cereal in his boxers. “No meanness allowed!”

Leonard takes a deep breath. “You brave, brave man-child. I do _not_ hate you. And I will _not_ destroy your life at the first chance I get.”

“I love you too, Bones!”

He wonders if his heart will ever stop skipping a beat at those words.

Probably not.

Luckily, he predicted something like this and carried out the proper retaliation protocol. There’s a reason he and Jim and best friends—which is also the reason why they’re not allowed to be on the same team during prank wars.

On the way out the door, he suddenly remembers that he has another trump card up his sleeve. So he offhandedly says, “Have fun in class today—with _Khan_.”

Much to his satisfaction, as he closes the door, he hears Jim screaming, “ **KHAAAAAAN!** ”

\--

“Good morning, Leonard. I had a dream where you turned into a psychopath and went on a killing spree with nothing but a scalpel and those steady, steady hands of yours,” Christine tells him. She pauses and assesses him for a moment before adding, “Now I’m wondering if it was really a dream or a prophetic vision of the near future.”

He raises a brow and says, “It was Jim’s doing.”

“In my dream or your current reality?” she asks, pointing at his bright and colourful Hawaiian shirt, and his equally loud board shorts.

“Both. Because even in a dream, it’s probably Jim,” he reasons. “Everything and anything can and always will be traced back to James Tiberius Kirk.”

It’s not even mean; it’s simply the truth.

“Is Jim aware that today’s BNTE Day and _not_ Halloween?” she asks.

Leonard shrugs. “Would he care?”

Christine grins. “Touché. To be fair though, I think the colourfulness and the palm tree print make you look very approachable. It helps draw attention away from that big, murder-y frown on your face. Jim definitely bought this with you in mind.”

He shoots her a glare. “I’m so glad you have such high regards for my outfit. I’ll be sure to pass your compliments on to Jim when I kill him.”

“At least it’s better than last year’s,” she offers.

“In what way?”

“It looks less like vomit,” she says, keeping her mouth open for a moment before shaking her head, “and that’s all I got. At least it looks less like vomit this year.”

Leonard remembers the ‘melted ice cream gone wrong’ themed outfit Jim dressed him in last year and it feels like a war flashback. “That’s true. Thank you for the kind words.”

Then Geoff walks by with a snicker. “Hey Leonard, nice outfit.”

“Thanks a lot. I appreciate the fact that you walked all the way from the other side of the room just to tell me that,” Leonard groans and buries his face in his hands. Then he hears a camera shutter and glares at Christine. “Did you just take a picture?”

“Yep. Hold still, let me Snapchat this to Carol,” she tells him.

“I’m _so_ glad we’re friends,” he mutters darkly.

Ignoring his tone, Christine gives him a patronizing pat on the face. “Why, thank you, Leonard. I'm glad we're friends too. You make the best Snapchats.”

\--

Everyone has a different way of dealing with BNTE Day. There's him, with his sarcasm and adding “not” in front of everything. There's Jim, who just turns his positivity to full blast and blinds everyone with it. And then there are those like Nyota who prefer to play it on the safe side.

“Leonard!” she exclaims, coming to a halt. There’s a flash of surprise on her face as she gives him a once over. “You’re wearing…clothes…with colour,” she says, her expression telling him exactly what kind of adjectives she kept out of that sentence.

As much as he hates BNTE Day, even he has to admit that it’s fun watching Nyota state the obvious to refrain from making negative comments. While no one doubts that she could easily win BNTE Day with her extensive knowledge of everything pertaining to languages, she clearly doesn’t see it as a worthwhile pursuit.

“Indeed I am, darlin’. You can thank Jim for that,” he says, “which probably doesn’t come as a surprise to you—or anyone else, actually.”

“Not in the least. Are you two matching?”

He gives a vague shrug. “He was still eating and watching cartoons when I left this morning. I’m on my way over there now if you want to come with?”

She runs a hand through her ponytail and sighs, “Might as well get it over with and see what Kirk’s done to the boys this time.”

“What, you _didn’t_ like the ‘Engineers Gone Wild’ theme last year?” he teases.

It was ‘wild’ in the sense that everyone, both staff and students, in the department showed up that day in animal and monster onesies. Jim somehow found the ugliest chimera onesie in the back of some costume shop. It was literally a random assortment of onesie parts that someone had sewn together.

Needless to say, he won the similarly themed gift basket that year for ‘Best Outfit’, and the gang spent the night watching _Where the Wild Things_ _Are_ while wearing paper masks and crowns while drinking ‘wild’ cocktails.

Apparently there’s a box full of terrible theme names that they draw from for ideas when the occasion calls for it. Whoever gets their idea drawn from the box gets an extension card for any assignment, so long as it’s an engineering course. And if a staff member’s idea gets picked, they get to pass on one assignment to another staff member to mark, provided there’s an answer key.

Anyone who refuses or forgets to participate are made to wear clothes from the engineering faculty’s lost and never found box. No one knows where or when half the things in there came from as no sane person would ever wear anything from there without being forced into it. All the clothes that go into the box are never seen again. For all anyone knows, the box is a place where clothes mutate into something else entirely. Sure, it might fit like a shirt, but anyone with eyes would be able to see that it was just… _not_.

Nyota makes a face at the memories, equal part fond, amused, and exasperated.

She’s probably remembering how unimpressed and a little morose Spock looked in his flying squirrel onesie.

\--

They’re not disappointed when they finally get to the Engineering building. They’re greeted by Gaila by the door, wearing a vomit-green shirt, bright baby pink pants, and electric blue gloves. Nyota does a double take. “Gaila, you too are wearing…colours.”

“Thanks, Nyota! Do you like it? I picked it out myself!” Then she turns to him and her smile brightens. “Oh, Leonard, you are looking so colourful today! I love it! It almost matches our theme! Did Jim tell you about it? We are doing a ‘Clash of the Pigments’ theme this year.”

Leonard looks around inside and is nearly blinded by the range of terrible colour combinations. “Well, clash seems to be putting it mildly,” he mutters.

“I have sunglasses if you want? I do not have class today, so I get to stand here and offer sunglasses to people coming through,” Gaila says, holding a pair of bright, tacky dollar store sunglasses.

He takes the bright yellow pineapple sunglasses because hey, he might as well add to the tropical loudness that is his get-up today.

Nyota opts for a subtler pair—the red, bedazzled masquerade party glasses.

“So whose idea was it this year?” Leonard asks.

“Pike.”

Given how many of Pike’s suggestions have been picked from that box, it doesn’t even come as a surprise anymore.

Gaila waves them through, adding, “I am also required to warn people that walk through here that there will be a lot of people wearing aesthetically repulsive clothes with bold and bright colours and/or patterns. Although we have taken the precaution to ban any flashing lights, this year’s theme may cause nausea, dizziness, offended sensibilities, and general disgust. In extreme cases of discomfort, please call for a staff member as they are all trained in first aid in the sense that they have watched first aid performed in movies and will Youtube procedures if necessary. In the case of an _actual_ emergency, please seek out our local pre-med, Leonard, for assistance. I hope you have fun and remember to be nice!”

On the way down the hall, they pass by disastrous hand knit sweaters by colour-blind relatives, neon animal print, spandex, and other strange, fantastical things. For the most part, the outfits are tolerable, but occasionally, someone walks by with an outfit so perfectly terrible that they have to turn away, the protection provided by the sunglasses rendered moot.

And then they run into Pike.

Decked out in a spring green shirt and orchid flare pants.

No sunglasses could’ve protected his eyes from that.

 “Hello, McCoy, Uhura,” Pike greets. “Nice sunglasses.”

With his head turned to the side, he nods. “Hello, sir. Congratulations on having your theme picked again. I see you’re embracing it fully.”

Pike smirks, looking very pleased with himself. “So nice of you to notice. And you seem to fit right in here with us.”

“That was probably Jim’s plan,” Leonard says.

“I suspected as much. Well, I must say, today’s been quite pleasant so far. I especially enjoy watching my students’ faces from the front of the class and calling on anyone who looks away.”

“What a surprise,” he says drily.

“Where did you procure those pants, sir?” Nyota asks, eyeing the bell-bottoms.

She probably wanted to ask ‘ _when’_.

“From my trunk of good times past. I’ll leave it to you to guess the decade,” Pike says, walking off with a laugh.

Leonard leans over towards Nyota. “Do you think it’s from the ‘60s?”

She shakes her head. “But he probably wore those when he was in his teens or in his 20s, that would make him 60 now. There’s no way he’s 60. Maybe it’s from the ‘70s? ‘80s? How old is Pike anyway?”

“I don’t know, he could be immortal for all I know, I’m not about to ask him,” he argues. “Let’s go ask the others.”

“If they don’t know, we’ll get Kirk to ask Pike,” Nyota suggests.

He nods. “Excellent idea, darlin’.”

_“Text!”_

**_15:42, J. Kirk to L. McCoy:_ **

_Are you here? I’m in the Puce Dungeon with Spock. It’s next to the Baby Poo Green Lab._

**_15:42, L. McCoy to J. Kirk:_ **

_What?_

\--

Upon entering the lab, the first thing Leonard notices is that someone had turned all the computers’ wallpapers to different shades of puce. Then, looking at the outfit he’d chosen for Jim, he can’t help but feel both proud (for picking something that went along with the faculty’s theme), and disgusted (at just how hideous the whole thing look).

The fact that Jim Kirk failed to make that particular outfit look good is testament to Leonard’s keen eye for unfashion.

The best word to describe the baggy shirt would probably be ‘multi-floral’ as it’s made up of 11 different floral patterns: two on each sleeve, two in the front, two in the back, one for the collar, one for the chest pocket, and one down the front where the buttons are sewn. And the very, _very_ blue skinny jeans Jim has on seems to clash with every single colour on the shirt somehow.

Spock, on the other hand, seems to have gone with the colour scheme of ‘child on MS Paint using only the default colours’. He’s wearing a checker-pattered shirt that changes half way around the shirt—only, instead of changing from front to back, it switches colour in the middle of the shirt, splitting it left to right instead. He’s also wearing a vest with fringes, which Leonard will never be able to unsee.

“Wow, so many colours. I need a moment,” Nyota mutters, turning away to rest her eyes.

“Bones! You pick out the best outfits,” Jim calls out with a grin. “I was just gonna go to the fine arts department to get someone to paint me an outfit, but this is _way_ better! Nice sunglasses, by the way.”

“I’m so glad you approve,” Leonard says, squinting. “Speaking of, Christine said I looked significantly less like vomit this year.”

Jim smiles. “I’m glad she liked it. Did she Snapchat it to people?”

Leonard stifles a groan. “Do you even have to ask? I _don’t_ hate you so much and I’m definitely _not_ going to strangle you tomorrow.”

“Glad to hear it,” the other answers easily. “So did you see anyone else on your way here? Some of the outfits today were really well done.”

“We passed by Gaila and Pike on the way here. He seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself. We’ve been trying to figure out when he got his flare pants. Do you think he’ll win the basket this year?”

“Nah, did you guys see Scotty, Chekov, and Sulu? No? Well, my bet’s on them,” Jim tells him. “Maybe we’ll see them later. They really took the theme and ran with it.”

“What’s in the basket this time?” Nyota asks, still averting her gaze.

“Skittles vodka, everything needed to make jello shots, and a couple of canvas and paint,” Jim lists off. “Nothing says Clash of the Pigments like a drunk artists’ night. We’ll have to find a night when everyone’s available.”

“Speaking of paint, what’s with this lab anyway? The Puce Dungeon?” Leonard asks.

“Yeah, for the fifty shades of puce on the screens, and our unhealthy relationship with this lab,” Jim explains.

“It’s certainly nice to see that even _you_ can achieve such a high level of self-awareness,” a voice suddenly speaks up.

They all turn to see Khan standing there, a faintest hint of a smirk on his lips. Despite the psychedelic shirt he had on, he still somehow managed to maintain an aura of superiority about him. In a way, Khan and the shirt are a perfect match for each other; never in his life has Leonard ever seen a shirt give off an ‘I will devour you and all those you love’ feel—until now.

He’s about to step in and give Khan a piece of his mind when Jim raises a hand to stop him. “It’s cool, Bones, be nice. I’ve got this.”

Standing down, he crosses his arms and watches. On the one hand, Leonard is pissed off as hell that a non-friend dare speak to Jim this way, but on the other, he’s glad he didn’t miss the nice-off. And on that same hand, with Jim so preoccupied, it just means he won’t have time to goad others into starting their own nice-offs. Judging by the way Spock and Nyota are watching the two, they’re probably thinking the same thing—only calmer and more logical.

“I’m surprised you decided to take part in BNTE Day, Khan. I imagine it must make you feel all sorts of uncomfortable—I mean, having to take part in unfamiliar tradition and what not,” Jim jibes.

Khan narrows his eyes. “I am touched by your concern, Kirk. However, when I came here, I promised my family that I would make the most of my experience, and this includes taking part in your ways. I send them regular reports on the activities I partake in, and I intend to tell them about this most…fascinating day whether I enjoy it or not. Is there anything you would not do…for your family?”

Jim arches a brow. “Oh, there are _so_ many things I wouldn’t do for them. I don’t even know where to begin. I love them, but there are definitely lines. It’s nice though, that you’re so close with your family. I also like how you managed to pull off that shirt from the lost and found.”

“Yes, and I admire the way you managed to pull off your outfit. In a way I suppose it matches the owner,” Khan replies.

“You mean bright, colourful, and amazing? Thank you, and here I thought you were looking down on me. But in all honesty…”

And on and on the backhanded compliments flew until even Leonard got sick of it. Sure, having Jim face his newest rival in a nice-off was great and all, but the novelty wore off about five minutes in when it was clear that the two were equally matched in wit. He turned to Nyota and shoots her a look, a silent request to put an end to this. She nods in affirmation and turns to Spock and whispers something in his ear that causes his eyebrow to raise.

The two have a short whispered conversation before Spock finally nods and walks up to the bickering pair and punches them in the arm.

“Ow! What was that for, Spock?” Jim complains.

Unfazed, Spock begins, “It has been brought to my attention that it is not very ‘nice’ of you two to be consuming so much of our time with your personal feud. As a result, according to the unwritten rules of ‘Be Nice to Everyone Day’, those who are not ‘nice’ are to receive a punch, which I just delivered.”

Without waiting for a reply from either party, the three of them drag Jim out of the Puce Dungeon and escape, leaving Spock as the winner of the great Kirk-Khan Nice-Off.

And on their way out of the building, they pass by Pavel, in a cyan jumpsuit and a plastic sword in his hand, dueling it out with Hikaru, who’s in a yellow jumpsuit and has his own plastic sabre in hand. “Your suit makes me green with envy.”

Suddenly, Scotty joins in with an axe and a red jumpsuit, yelling, “For glory! We shall fight until we bleed purple and orange today!”

Leonard lets out a whistle. “Well, I’ll be. This is, by far, the most impressive thing I‘ve seen today.”

Jim pouts and is about to say something but Nyota cuts him off, “BNTE Day, Kirk. BNTE Day.”

Then, for first time on a BNTE Day, Nyota laughs and she and Leonard then proceed to high-five each other at Jim’s horrified face.

\--

“I can’t believe you two ganged up on me! And I can’t believe Spock took my win like that!” Jim complains the next day over breakfast.

Leonard rolls his eyes. “He did what he had to, otherwise, we would’ve been there till dusk. I hate to say it, Jim, but you and Khan were evenly matched.”

As expected, Jim makes a horrified face before shaking his head. “No, you’re right, Bones. A nice-off wasn’t the way to go. We clearly need to settle this in a fight to the death.”

He arches a brow and gives a sarcastic nod. “Yes, _clearly_ that is the only logical way to resolve this conflict. That makes _total_ sense. How, oh, _how_ could I have been so blind?”

“It’s okay, Bones, we all make mistakes,” Jim mock-consoles him. There’s a buzzing sound and he whips out his phone. “Oh, hey, we got our grades back for the midterm.”

Curiosity piqued, Leonard can’t help but look over. “Wow, that’s an awfully low average with an awfully high standard deviation. Where’d you land on the curve, Jim? Wow, this is like back in first year when you had Spock as a TA. Looks like Khan kept his word, huh?”

Jim scowls, shaking his fist in the air, he yells, “ **KHAAAAAAN!** ”

Rolling his eyes, Leonard turns his attention back to his bowl of cereal and continues eating.

\--

In the end, unfortunately for Jim, he doesn’t get his fight to the death because Khan gets sent back home after a particularly nasty incident involving Dean Marcus. The man came across the exchange student, asleep in the lounge and shook him awake only to suddenly find himself on the ground, bleeding and concussed, with a menacing Khan standing over him, hissing, “You…you should have let me sleep.”

After hearing about it, Jim immediately said, “Totally called it! The guy’s completely bananas.”

And for once, all Spock could do was nod in agreement.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, this one literally took me over a year to write, but I finally finished it! For those who were waiting, sorry for the super long wait! 
> 
> And in case you want to know what I had in mind when I said "multi-floral", [this](http://bentbanani.com/images/bbunique11.jpg) is it.


End file.
